The man who, from the beginning of his life, has been bathed at length in the soft atmosphere of a woman, in the smell of her hand...s, of her bosom, of her knees, of her hair, of her supple and floating clothes, ... has contracted from this contact a tender skin and a distinct accent, a kind of androgyny without which the harshest and most masculine genius remains, as far as perfection in art is concerned, an incomplete being.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

What side of American life is not touched by this antithesis? What explanation of American life is more central or more illuminati...ng? In everything one finds this frank acceptance of twin values which are not expected to have anything in common: on the one hand, a quite unclouded, quite unhypothetical assumption of aesthetic theory ("high ideals"), on the other a simultaneous acceptance of catchpenny realities. Between university ethics and business ethics, between American culture and American humour, between Good Government and Tammany, between academic pedantry and pavement slang, there is no community, no genial middle ground. The very accent of the words "Highbrow" and "Lowbrow" implies an instinctive perception that this is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. For both are used in a derogatory sense. The "Highbrow" is the superior person whose virtue is admitted but felt to be an inept unpalatable virtue; while the "Lowbrow" is a good fellow one readily takes to, but with a certain scorn for him and all his works.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

I have been told lately that Fuseli was travelling by coach and a gentleman opposite him said: "I understand, Mr. Fuseli, that you... are a painter; it may interest you to know that I have a daughter who paints on velvet."Fuseli rose instantly and said in a strong foreign accent, "Let me get out."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The word by seers or sibyls told,In groves of oak, or fanes of gold,...Still floats upon the morning wind,Still whispers to the willing mind.One accent of the Holy GhostThe heedless world hath never lost.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

As soon as I suspect a fine effect is being achieved by accident I lose interest. I am not interested ... in unskilled labor.... T...he scientific actor is an even worker. Any one may achieve on some rare occasion an outburst of genuine feeling, a gesture of imperishable beauty, a ringing accent of truth; but your scientific actor knows how he did it. He can repeat it again and again and again. He can be depended on.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interes...ted in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

It takes more time and effort and delicacy to learn the silence of a people than to learn its sounds. Some people have a special g...ift for this. Perhaps this explains why some missionaries, notwithstanding their efforts, never come to speak properly, to communicate delicately through silences. Although they "speak with the accent of natives" they remain forever thousands of miles away. The learning of the grammar of silence is an art much more difficult to learn than the grammar of sounds.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy's conduct in the office, with my manner of... dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn't approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn't have done that.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »